Barangay Cabawan was created by virtue of a City Ordinance No. 42, series of 1967 by the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Tagbilaran creating Cabawan into a district of the City of Tagbilaran.

The name “Cabawan” is a Visayan version for carabao which originated after the environmental situation that during the late 1960’s, this area has plenty of carabaos where barangay people depend on farming as their main source of income for their livelihood.

Barangay Cabawan has bounded on the north by the municipality of Cortes; on the east by the municipality of Corella; on the south by Barangay San Isidro and on the west by Barangay Tiptip, City of Tagbilaran.

Barangay folks are fond of seeing ballgames such as basketball, volleyball and some are also fond of attending disco activities especially during fiesta occasion.

Their income mostly depends on farming while others have utilized their skills in carpentry, masonry, laundry service, laborers, barbers, beauticians, driving while others are employed in private and public institutions.

This barangay has a total land area of 267.3242 hectares wherein an estimated 130 hectares were utilized as residential; 128 hectares for agricultural purposes; 7 hectares for parks and open spaces and 2 hectares for the institutional area. This barangay has a distance of 8 kilometers from the city.

It is composed of four (4) puroks with a total of 219 households basing on the latest barangay assembly conducted on December 17, 2006 and has an estimated 1,144 barangay constituents of its total population. It has a geographical formation like hills and slopes with rocks and limestones under the loam soils. This class of soil is best for planting corn, root crop and banana.